Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Roof Jump was Pre-Recorded

Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl LI performance on Sunday (Feb. 5) proved a memorable one, even if part of it was pre-recorded.

While Gaga did jump off the roof at NRG Stadium as drones flew over her head and lit up the sky in an American flag, the intro was actually filmed in Houston several days before the big game. A spokesperson from Intel explained to USA Today the reasoning behind pre-taping this portion of the singer’s performance.

“There’s a lot of weather and environment (issues),” Intel general manager Natalie Cheung said. “In February, you don’t know what it will be like during Super Bowl day. We’d hate to plan all this and, if the wind speeds are too high or if it’s raining and the roof is closed, no one can see this spectacular show. So our creative team as well as the Super Bowl creative team felt this would be best to be filmed.”

The problems were easily remedied by having Gaga make the leap under more controlled conditions.

“Lady Gaga also was on the roof when this was filmed, and from a logistics and creative perspective, it’s a bit hard for her to go from the roof all the way down to the floor of the stadium,” Cheung added.